10/23/2026
Summary: When a shoulder dislocates, the ball of the joint is pushed out of its socket, and getting it back in place quickly matters. OrthoNebraska orthopedic surgeon Dr. Matthew Tingle walks through what happens next, from on-field care to X-rays that rule out fractures. For simple dislocations, most athletes are back in 3 to 6 weeks, once full strength and range of motion return.
Video transcript
() We’re back for football on the OrthoNebraska halftime show. We’re always talking to surgeons and people over at Ortho and we learn something new every time. This is Matthew Tingle, an orthopedic surgeon, and we’re talking about shoulder dislocations.
() What happens there?
() Yeah. So, when a shoulder dislocates, it’s the ball and the socket joint that make up the shoulder joint. So, the ball is actually getting pushed out of the socket itself, usually to the front and down a little bit. Rare circumstances, it’s out the back or down. Um, this is something where it is something that we’d like to get addressed immediately if that does happen. Um, that’s usually something we can either reduce either when the injury happens or reduce on the field with one of our athletic trainers or one of our orthopedic surgeons on site. And, uh, we usually like to get it put back in place. In rare circumstances, we actually have to have the patient kind of go back to the uh emergency room and get it reduced itself.
() And in an emergency room, what would those next steps be?
() Yeah, usually we get X-rays to make sure there’s no fractures associated with it, whether that’s on the ball side of it or on the socket side. Um, if there isn’t any fractures or if there is, we can usually see that with X-rays. But we’d like to confirm that we have the ball in the socket reduced in a good anatomic position.
() And how long are they typically out? Probably hard to answer, but generally.
() Yeah. So that’s a great question. So for simple dislocations or dislocations that don’t involve the fracture actually happening to the ball or the socket, usually we can get athletes back into the playing field usually within, you know, 3 to 6 weeks is kind of a ballpark. Sometimes sooner, sometimes a little bit later. Usually what we’re looking for is for the athlete to be able to have full strength regained and full range of motion. Um, that’s what we kind of look for before we allow the athletes to return to the playing field or the football field.
() All right. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Tingle on the OrthoNebraska halftime show. We’re back with more football right after this.
